Eubena Nampitjin, Untitled, 2001

Lot description

EUBENA NAMPITJIN 1921 - 2013 Untitled, 2001 acrylic on linen 150 x 100 cm bears inscription verso: Eubena Nampitjin, Warlayirti Artists, 10-01 PROVENANCE Warlayirti Artists, WA Cat No. 10-01 Private collection, Singapore Eubena Nampitjin began painting in 1988 alongside her second husband, Wimmitji Tjapangarti. Their early works portrayed Dreaming sites, country, and ancestral travels in intimate cartographic detail and remain to this day some of the finest paintings ever to emerge from the Balgo Hills community. After the death of her daughter, Ema Gimme Nungurrayi, in 1993, Nampitjin returned to her birthplace near Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route and did not paint again until she was encouraged to return to Balgo Hills two years later. From that time onward, she painted alone, adopting larger, freer dots and a more gestural style executed with a palette of red, yellow, and pink. Over time, these late-career works became more akin to finger painting, with fluid brushstrokes and only the occasional intimate section actually dotted with a stick. Nampitjin's work, with its trademark use of vibrant colour, bold patterning, and rough-and-ready handling, creates an extraordinary sense of presence. This is evident in this rendition of her country along the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route, near Kunawarritji (Well 33). This is the place where Nampitjin would often hunt and gather food. The strong lines in the painting depict the tali (sandhills) that dominate the country surrounding a hill named Yilpa. © EUBENA NAMPITJIN / Copyright Agency, 2025